Transylvanian Review 2/2012

Vol. XXI, No. 2, Summer 2012

• Paradigms

L’Union de la Bessarabie à la Roumanie en tant que forme de matérialisation des droits des nations à l’autodétermination, p. 3
Nicolae EnciuAbstract - The Union between Bessarabia and Romania: A Concrete Manifestation of the Nations’ Right to Self-determination
The author approaches the union between Bessarabia and Romania (27 March/9 April 1918, internationally recognized in October 1920 at the Paris Peace Conference) in the broader context of the implementation of the principle of nationalities, first asserted during the French Revolution. For Romania, which saw all of its provinces gathered within the borders of a single state, the interwar period was a time of comprehensive modernization, but also of failures. The author reviews precisely these instances, focusing on the interwar realties of Bessarabia, a historical province which for a while (1918–1940) returned within the boundaries of the Romanian state.Keywords: self-determination, principle of nationalities, Dimitrie Gusti, Country Assembly, Paris Peace Conference

Der Landesrat in Bessarabien: Ethnische Zusammensetzung, politischen Orientierung, Sozialisation und Bildungsstand der Abgeordneten, p. 19
Katja LaschAbstract- The Country Assembly of Bessarabia: Ethnic Composition, Political Orientation, Social and Educational Level of the Members
The article investigates the sociological composition of the Country Assembly of Bessarabia in 1917–1918. Representative institution of the people of Bessarabia, this parliament decisively influenced the history of this former Russian province during the period under investigation, declaring the autonomy and then the independence of the lands located between the Pruth and the Dniester rivers and then deciding on the union with Romania, in March 1918. The present ana­lysis focuses, on the one hand, on the type of voting used in the election of representatives and, on the other, on the sociological composition of the elected representatives in terms of ethnicity, po­litical orientation, age and level of education, throughout the entire activity of the Country Assembly. This comprehensive and detailed presentation of all the political and ethnic forces represented in the Bessarabian parliament also highlights the manner in which the Romanian-speaking representatives sought to represent and outline their ethnic and political bases.Keywords: Bessarabia, Moldavian movement, Parliament, representatives, Country Assembly

The Geopolitical and Geostrategic Position of Romania during 1938–1940, p.37
Dan Prisãcaru Abstract - The Geopolitical and Geostrategic Position of Romania during 1938–1940
Included in the “sanitary belt” created by France after the Great War of 1914–1918, Romania was, between 1919 and 1940, the southern “anchor” of the French defense system in Central and Eastern Europe, which was intended to block off the political and ideological influences of Germany and the Soviet Union. Together with the geopolitical and geostrategic importance of the Romanian space, the richness of its natural resources, among which oil occupied a leading position, generated a keen interest among the Great Powers, especially Germany and the USSR, who intended to expand their control over Romania. The belated understanding of the vested interests, the weaknesses of the foreign propaganda, a certain stiffness of Bucharest’s foreign policy after 7 March 1936, when significant mutations occurred in the balance of power in Europe, and also a series of deficiencies of the Romanian interwar state and society, were the main causes of territorial dismemberment of Greater Romania in 1940.Keywords: collapse of collective security, buffer state, geopolitical pressures, sidedness in foreign policy, territorial dismemberment

L’Année 1940 dans le destin de la Bessarabie, p.56
Ion SiscanuAbstract - The Year 1940 in the Destiny of Bessarabia
The author analyzes the context in which the Soviet regime took hold in Bessarabia, a Romanian province annexed in 1940, following the signing of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact and of the additional secret protocol, a direct and brutal manifestation of the exercise of brute force in international relations. It was the beginning of a process that saw the colonization, denationalization, Bolshevization and Russification of this province.Keywords: Romania, the USSR, the Red Army, denationalization

L’Invention du parlementarisme et la sécession de la République Socialiste Soviétique de Moldavie, p. 66
Gheorghe CojocaruAbstract - The Invention of Parliamentarianism and the Secession of the Republic of Moldova from the USSR
In 1990–1991, after the first free elections in the history of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova (February–March 1990), its Supreme Soviet became the main organism engaged in the struggle against the pan-unional forces, seeking to assert national sovereignty both internally and internationally. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union—an empire that in 1940 had fraudulently seized, by way of a diktat, the Romanian lands between the Pruth and Dniester rivers—the day of 27 August 1991 marked the culminating point of the national emancipation movement, and the last Supreme Soviet made history by becoming the Independence Parliament of the Republic of Moldova.Keywords: Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova, Mircea Snegur, Alexandru Moşanu

• Europe

A consciência da latinidade – uma via romena para a integração europeia, p. 82
Virgil MihaiuAbstract - The Consciousness of Latin Origins: A Romanian Way towards European Integration
The essay, written in Portuguese, points out that the awareness of its Latin origins (latinidade) is essential in defining the Romanian identity. The Dacian-Roman fusion gave birth to Eastern-Europe’s only neo-Latin speaking people. The Romanian language has maintained its Latin features despite centuries of vicissitudes. The enlightened representatives of the Transylvanian School (18th cent.) defended a programmatic re-Latinising of the Romanian language, accelerated by the establishment of a modern national state (1859). The Romanians’ empathic attitude towards the other Romance-language nations has plenty of historical motivations (e.g., traditional cultural and political ties with France and Italy; early diplomatic contacts with Brazil; King Ferdinand I, under whose reign Romania’s provinces were reunited in 1918, was the son of Infanta Antónia, daughter of Portugal’s queen; much of modern Romania’s artistic creativity displays fertile interferences with other Romance cultures, etc.). Belonging to the Latin world means for Romania a genuine argument in favour of its integration into the European civilisation, underpinning its membership in the European Union.Keywords: latinidade, Transylvanian School, Romanian modern national state, Marian Papahagi, European integration

The Control Mechanism for the Enforcement of European Court of Human Rights Decisions (II), p. 89
Titus CorlãteanAbstract - The Control Mechanism for the Enforcement of European Court of Human Rights Decisions
The paper examines the manner in which the enforcement of the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights is monitored and controlled, as the execution of those judgments depends on the states concerned. Thus, due to the fact that the judgments are declaratory and they are not directly enforceable, by themselves, in the Contracting States, although they are binding for the convicted states, the supervision of their execution goes to the Committee of Ministers, a political organ, and not to the judicial organ wherefrom they originated. Within this control mechanism, alongside the Committee of Ministers, the European Court has come to play a greater part in supervising the execution of its own decisions. At the same time, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe became more active with the passing of time, exerting a growing pressure on the member states and supporting the Committee of Ministers to ensure a proper execution of the conviction judgments of the European Court.Keywords: European Court of Human Rights, control mechanism, Committee of Ministers, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe

Romania and the Policy of the New Proximity, p. 110
Marcela SãlãgeanAbstract - Romania and the Policy of the New Proximity
The study looks at Romania’s place in the neighborhood policy currently implemented by the European Union, a policy meant to support the efforts of the EU’s partners and neighbors aimed at creating an area of prosperity and common values, based on high economic integration, more intense political and cultural relations, and cross-border cooperation. While this policy includes three geographical areas—the Mediterranean Region, Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus—the present study focuses on the second and on Romania’s possible involvement, especially in light of its favorable geostrategic position.Keywords: European Union, neighborhood policy, policy of proximity, Eastern Partnership

Convergence or Divergence? The Position of Romania in the Spatial Structure of the European Union, p. 116
József Benedek, Ibolya KurkóAbstract - Convergence or Divergence? The Position of Romania in the Spatial Structure
of the European Union
The political and economic changes that occurred at the end of the 1980s brought about considerable changes in the spatial structure of Romania. The goal to achieve a rapid economic growth overshadowed the objectives of social equity, economic and territorial cohesion, contributing to the increase in regional disparities. The main goal of the study is the presentation of the spatial structure of the European Union and the analysis of the regional disparities using two basic indicators: GDP/capita and the Human Development Index. In this framework a distinct attention will be given to the position of Romania and of the Romanian regions in the spatial structure of the European Union.Keywords: convergence, cohesion, Romania, European Union

• Tangencies

Why Do We Have a Positive Description of the Byzantine Court Ceremonial at William of Tyre in Comparison to the Latin Sources Written in Western Europe?, p. 126
Vlad SofronieAbstract - Why Do We Have a Positive Description of the Byzantine Court Ceremonial
at William of Tyre in Comparison to the Latin Sources Written in Western Europe?
The Western texts devoted to the Byzantine ceremonial usually featured a description on the ceremonial itself and did not try to explain the meaning of various political gestures. This ritual seemed to create only fear and confusion in the minds of the Latin historians, and the epithets applied to the Greeks reveal the jealousy and fear of the Western European society in regard to the Byzantine one. Furthermore, the Latin chroniclers of the Middle Ages drew on the literary works of the antiquity to underline the dubious, treacherous and evil nature of the Greeks. As opposed to the Western chroniclers, William of Tyre gives a positive, favorable description of the East-Roman court ceremonial. Born in the Orient, William was deeply impressed by this ritual showed great understanding for the Byzantine diplomacy. William was overwhelmed by this ritual and all his reports show his sincere appreciation of Byzantine ceremonies. In point of fact, the Latin historians from the Orient knew that the major threat did not come from the Greeks but from the emerging Islam. The Byzantines and their emperor Manuel Comnenos were their only hope of protecting their possessions from the Islamic expansion. This is the reason why we have a positive description of the Eastern ceremonial in William’s work.Keywords: William of Tyre, Byzantium, ceremonial, rituals, Constantinople, crusaders, Latin Orient

Les Incunables de la Bibliothèque de l’Académie roumaine, filiale de Cluj-Napoca, p. 138
Sorin CrisanAbstract - Incunabula at the Cluj-Napoca Branch of the Library of the Romanian Academy
The Cluj-Napoca branch of the Library of the Romanian Academy holds 177 incunabula (books printed in the second half of the 15th century) which once belonged to the libraries of the Catholic College (108 books), of the Reformed College (25), of the Unitarian College (18), to the Roman-Catholic Bishopric of Satu Mare (13), to the Central Library of Blaj (8) etc. There books are of extreme interest to those investigating the circulation of Western books in the Romanian provinces starting with the 15th century.Keywords: Catholic College of Cluj, printing shops, libraries, Transylvania

Abstract
The Union between Bessarabia and Romania: A Concrete Manifestation of the Nations’ Right to Self-determination

The author approaches the union between Bessarabia and Romania (27 March/9 April 1918, internationally recognized in October 1920 at the Paris Peace Conference) in the broader context of the implementation of the principle of nationalities, first asserted during the French Revolution. For Romania, which saw all of its provinces gathered within the borders of a single state, the interwar period was a time of comprehensive modernization, but also of failures. The author reviews precisely these instances, focusing on the interwar realties of Bessarabia, a historical province which for a while (1918–1940) returned within the boundaries of the Romanian state.

Abstract
The Country Assembly of Bessarabia: Ethnic Composition, Political Orientation, Social and Educational Level of the Members

The article investigates the sociological composition of the Country Assembly of Bessarabia in 1917–1918. Representative institution of the people of Bessarabia, this parliament decisively influenced the history of this former Russian province during the period under investigation, declaring the autonomy and then the independence of the lands located between the Pruth and the Dniester rivers and then deciding on the union with Romania, in March 1918. The present ana­lysis focuses, on the one hand, on the type of voting used in the election of representatives and, on the other, on the sociological composition of the elected representatives in terms of ethnicity, po­litical orientation, age and level of education, throughout the entire activity of the Country Assembly. This comprehensive and detailed presentation of all the political and ethnic forces represented in the Bessarabian parliament also highlights the manner in which the Romanian-speaking representatives sought to represent and outline their ethnic and political bases.

The Geopolitical and Geostrategic Position of Romania during 1938–1940 37
Dan Prisãcaru

Abstract
The Geopolitical and Geostrategic Position of Romania during 1938–1940

Included in the “sanitary belt” created by France after the Great War of 1914–1918, Romania was, between 1919 and 1940, the southern “anchor” of the French defense system in Central and Eastern Europe, which was intended to block off the political and ideological influences of Germany and the Soviet Union. Together with the geopolitical and geostrategic importance of the Romanian space, the richness of its natural resources, among which oil occupied a leading position, generated a keen interest among the Great Powers, especially Germany and the USSR, who intended to expand their control over Romania. The belated understanding of the vested interests, the weaknesses of the foreign propaganda, a certain stiffness of Bucharest’s foreign policy after 7 March 1936, when significant mutations occurred in the balance of power in Europe, and also a series of deficiencies of the Romanian interwar state and society, were the main causes of territorial dismemberment of Greater Romania in 1940.

The author analyzes the context in which the Soviet regime took hold in Bessarabia, a Romanian province annexed in 1940, following the signing of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact and of the additional secret protocol, a direct and brutal manifestation of the exercise of brute force in international relations. It was the beginning of a process that saw the colonization, denationalization, Bolshevization and Russification of this province.

Abstract
The Invention of Parliamentarianism and the Secession of the Republic of Moldova from the USSR

In 1990–1991, after the first free elections in the history of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Moldova (February–March 1990), its Supreme Soviet became the main organism engaged in the struggle against the pan-unional forces, seeking to assert national sovereignty both internally and internationally. With the disintegration of the Soviet Union—an empire that in 1940 had fraudulently seized, by way of a diktat, the Romanian lands between the Pruth and Dniester rivers—the day of 27 August 1991 marked the culminating point of the national emancipation movement, and the last Supreme Soviet made history by becoming the Independence Parliament of the Republic of Moldova.

Keywords
Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Moldova, Mircea Snegur, Alexandru Moşanu

Abstract
The Consciousness of Latin Origins: A Romanian Way towards European Integration

The essay, written in Portuguese, points out that the awareness of its Latin origins (latinidade) is essential in defining the Romanian identity. The Dacian-Roman fusion gave birth to Eastern-Europe’s only neo-Latin speaking people. The Romanian language has maintained its Latin features despite centuries of vicissitudes. The enlightened representatives of the Transylvanian School (18th cent.) defended a programmatic re-Latinising of the Romanian language, accelerated by the establishment of a modern national state (1859). The Romanians’ empathic attitude towards the other Romance-language nations has plenty of historical motivations (e.g., traditional cultural and political ties with France and Italy; early diplomatic contacts with Brazil; King Ferdinand I, under whose reign Romania’s provinces were reunited in 1918, was the son of Infanta Antónia, daughter of Portugal’s queen; much of modern Romania’s artistic creativity displays fertile interferences with other Romance cultures, etc.). Belonging to the Latin world means for Romania a genuine argument in favour of its integration into the European civilisation, underpinning its membership in the European Union.

The Control Mechanism for the Enforcement of European Court of Human Rights Decisions (II) 89
Titus Corlãþean

Abstract
The Control Mechanism for the Enforcement of European Court of Human Rights Decisions

The paper examines the manner in which the enforcement of the rulings of the European Court of Human Rights is monitored and controlled, as the execution of those judgments depends on the states concerned. Thus, due to the fact that the judgments are declaratory and they are not directly enforceable, by themselves, in the Contracting States, although they are binding for the convicted states, the supervision of their execution goes to the Committee of Ministers, a political organ, and not to the judicial organ wherefrom they originated. Within this control mechanism, alongside the Committee of Ministers, the European Court has come to play a greater part in supervising the execution of its own decisions. At the same time, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe became more active with the passing of time, exerting a growing pressure on the member states and supporting the Committee of Ministers to ensure a proper execution of the conviction judgments of the European Court.

Keywords
European Court of Human Rights, control mechanism, Committee of Ministers, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Romania and the Policy of the New Proximity 110
Marcela Sãlãgean

Abstract
Romania and the Policy of the New Proximity

The study looks at Romania’s place in the neighborhood policy currently implemented by the European Union, a policy meant to support the efforts of the EU’s partners and neighbors aimed at creating an area of prosperity and common values, based on high economic integration, more intense political and cultural relations, and cross-border cooperation. While this policy includes three geographical areas—the Mediterranean Region, Eastern Europe and Southern Caucasus—the present study focuses on the second and on Romania’s possible involvement, especially in light of its favorable geostrategic position.

Convergence or Divergence? The Position of Romania in the Spatial Structure of the European Union 116
József Benedek
Ibolya Kurkó

Abstract
Convergence or Divergence? The Position of Romania in the Spatial Structure
of the European Union

The political and economic changes that occurred at the end of the 1980s brought about considerable changes in the spatial structure of Romania. The goal to achieve a rapid economic growth overshadowed the objectives of social equity, economic and territorial cohesion, contributing to the increase in regional disparities. The main goal of the study is the presentation of the spatial structure of the European Union and the analysis of the regional disparities using two basic indicators: GDP/capita and the Human Development Index. In this framework a distinct attention will be given to the position of Romania and of the Romanian regions in the spatial structure of the European Union.

Keywords
convergence, cohesion, Romania, European Union

• Tangencies
Why Do We Have a Positive Description of the Byzantine Court Ceremonial at William of Tyre in Comparison to the Latin Sources Written in Western Europe? 126
Vlad Sofronie

Abstract
Why Do We Have a Positive Description of the Byzantine Court Ceremonial
at William of Tyre in Comparison to the Latin Sources Written in Western Europe?

The Western texts devoted to the Byzantine ceremonial usually featured a description on the ceremonial itself and did not try to explain the meaning of various political gestures. This ritual seemed to create only fear and confusion in the minds of the Latin historians, and the epithets applied to the Greeks reveal the jealousy and fear of the Western European society in regard to the Byzantine one. Furthermore, the Latin chroniclers of the Middle Ages drew on the literary works of the antiquity to underline the dubious, treacherous and evil nature of the Greeks. As opposed to the Western chroniclers, William of Tyre gives a positive, favorable description of the East-Roman court ceremonial. Born in the Orient, William was deeply impressed by this ritual showed great understanding for the Byzantine diplomacy. William was overwhelmed by this ritual and all his reports show his sincere appreciation of Byzantine ceremonies. In point of fact, the Latin historians from the Orient knew that the major threat did not come from the Greeks but from the emerging Islam. The Byzantines and their emperor Manuel Comnenos were their only hope of protecting their possessions from the Islamic expansion. This is the reason why we have a positive description of the Eastern ceremonial in William’s work.

Abstract
Incunabula at the Cluj-Napoca Branch of the Library of the Romanian Academy

The Cluj-Napoca branch of the Library of the Romanian Academy holds 177 incunabula (books printed in the second half of the 15th century) which once belonged to the libraries of the Catholic College (108 books), of the Reformed College (25), of the Unitarian College (18), to the Roman-Catholic Bishopric of Satu Mare (13), to the Central Library of Blaj (8) etc. There books are of extreme interest to those investigating the circulation of Western books in the Romanian provinces starting with the 15th century.